Sunday, January 22, 2017

Palestinians being stripped of land, rights, American bishop reports

An American bishop told Vatican Radio that “the tension is palpable”
in the Holy Land as prospects for a peace agreement between Israel and
Palestine founder.

Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, reported on his
experiences traveling as part of the Holy Land Coordination, which
annually sends bishops from Europe, South Africa, and North America to
visit Christians in the troubled region.

He said that there are “some
small signs” of movement toward peace, but “it’s one step forward and
two or three steps backward.”

Bishop Cantu expressed regret particularly for the continued growth
of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which involve
“just a gradual taking-over of land and closing the possibility of a
two-state solution.”

He lamented that “the Palestinian people are
becoming a people without a land, and they are certainly people without
rights.”